Cecil Stoughton Dies at 88; Documented White House
Cecil Stoughton, the chief photographer for the Kennedy White House, who documented its glittering public moments and its intimate private ones, and who captured its sudden end in one of the signal images of the 20th century — Lyndon B. Johnson’s swearing-in as president aboard Air Force One on Nov. 22, 1963 — died on Monday. Mr. Stoughton, who died at his home on Merritt Island, Fla., was 88.
His son Jamie confirmed the death.
Mr. Stoughton’s picture is the only photographic record of the Johnson administration’s abrupt, official beginning. At a precarious moment in the country’s history, it gave the public at least a semblance of continuity: one president sworn in as the widow of another looked numbly on.
A retired officer with the Army Signal Corps, Mr. Stoughton was the first official White House photographer. Photographers had taken pictures of presidents for more than a century before him, of course, but only with the advent of the Kennedy administration in January 1961 was a position created for a photographer attached to the White House.
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His son Jamie confirmed the death.
Mr. Stoughton’s picture is the only photographic record of the Johnson administration’s abrupt, official beginning. At a precarious moment in the country’s history, it gave the public at least a semblance of continuity: one president sworn in as the widow of another looked numbly on.
A retired officer with the Army Signal Corps, Mr. Stoughton was the first official White House photographer. Photographers had taken pictures of presidents for more than a century before him, of course, but only with the advent of the Kennedy administration in January 1961 was a position created for a photographer attached to the White House.